The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 7, 1896, Page 10

10 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1896. A DAY OF GLORY FOR THE WOMEN. Their Congress Hails With Joy the News of the Indorsement of the Suiirage Bill. MISS ANTHONY CHEERED On the Wave of Republican Jus- tice the Movement Rolls to Success. MISS SHAW IS ELCQUENT. Miss . Yates of Maine and Rev. Dr. Voorsanger Are Among the Evening Speakers. Rich, warm shades of red enlivened the stage of Native Sons’ Hall at yesterday’s sessions of the Woman's Congress. Deep Jacqueminot roses, California poppies, wine-tinted chrysanthemums and flaming gladioli, set off by garlands of smilax and half hid by filmy veils of maidenbair ferns, formed a magnificent setting for the group of cultured ladies whose words of elo- quence and convineing logic besieged and took by storm the minds of those to whom they were addressed. The day’s toric was ‘““Woman,” and that mysterious idol of the masculine heart was considered as a myth, a fact and asa social factor. She was pursued through realms of religion, poetry and fiction, and thoroughly analyzed as she was, as she is, asshe is said to be and as she will be in earnest when she gets a chance. Miss Cordelia S. Kirtland of Chicago, 1ll., was accorded the first place on the programme of the morning, and her paper, “Woman as a Popular Myth,” was in her absence read by her friend, Mrs. Louise Humphrey-Smith. The treatment of the subject was as follows: The subjects of ancient myths had one great ad- vantage—they were not obliged to live up to thelr later biographies. Hercules would find his method of stable-cleaning interfered with to-day by riparian rights, and the employment of a professional trainer by Cacus might reverse the issue of his | pugilistic encounter with that gent'eman. But woman, less fortunate modern woman. has | to walk side by side. day in and_day out, with & | sion, the woman who melted to tears at | 1¢ the boys go astray (as under this maternal cult | they seem very likely t0), then she weeps and be- | wails herself privately, but s effusively grateful | to them if they return to her and say they are | sorry after having dissipated her fortune and ruined her life. Frau Hansen, whose one object is to show how | miserable women are who do not conform 1o th | old ideal, says: -Men turn from intellectu: women to the herd of geese who are driven yearly | to market. znd who go cackling to meet the I and of Sophie Kovalevsky she writes he was what the century forces such women to | be—a gemuns for nothing, & woman for nothing, | ever strugkling nions a road that leads nowhere, | and fainting by the way as she strives to attain a | distant mirage. Let us cease to be afraid of our own shadows and 10 g0 on erying out **Great is Daina of the Ephe- sians,” after a beiter and truer faith invites our atlegiance. Why, for instance, should women, when they de- sire 10 'start. a new arzanization of any kind, al- ways KoLow o the old specters of the nursery and tho kitchen, by assuring the world thut the new activity will not make them worse wives and mothers? Imagine a man prefacing his account of an improvement in the printing-press or steam- engine with the assurance to those who are to use it thae it will not make them worse husbands and fathers! Would not inextinguishable laughter shake the assemblies of the gods? But these delusions, 8o loug and fondly cher- ished, are slowly disappearing under the clear scientific weighing of values that constitutes the | | glory of our time. Fra Angelico's angels are lovely and nobody insists upon the fact that there are evidently no bodies under those flowing robes, but a modern painter, who should show himself equally oblivious of anatomy, would not be for- given though his subject should be the Beata Beatrix herself: so Ibsen and George Meredith, Howells and Guriand are inexorably pricking the old iridescent bubbles, and showing the one sex to be as various and as litle amenable to per- funciory classification as the other, as indeed, born of the same father and mother, with the same curious threads of many-colored heredity twisted into ber personality, how should it be otherwise * S0 it i3 10 be boped tha: we shall finally take the hint, and, realizing that a_flesh-and-biood_baby is alw s more interesting than doll stuffed with sawdust, however beautiful, cultivate within our- selves the eternal verities: The reason firm, the temperate will, Endurance, foresight, strength and skill, il admirers and detractors allke acknowledge that the reality is fairer than the dream and rele- gate the old myth to the domain of cloud cuckoo- iand, where 1t_belongs, while we press forward to the goul whither one of our own California poets invites us A body free and strong, with that high beauty That comes of perfect use—Is built thereof; A mind where reason ruleth over duty And justice reigns with love. A self-poised, roval soul, brave, wise and tender, No longer blind and dumb; A numan being of an unknown splendor 15 she who is to come! Mrs. Philfi L. Weaver, opening the dis- cussion jof Miss Kirtland’s paper, said in part: ‘“‘The woman who fainted on every occa- the least thing,1s relegated to the past. fancy portrait dressed in her clothes and labeled Women can now stand upon her own foundation and do her duty because she self, arose from the audience and said: “All the stores and sll the markets in Colorado are ‘closed on Sunday, and all this has occurred since women have been given the ballot. Colonel Dickinson of Alameda was asked to say something, but jokingly said he was scared to get on the platiorm. Anyway, he made the attempt. #‘You might as well try to dam the waters of the Nile with bulrushes as to check the rush of freedom.” Then, quot- ing from Olive Schreiner, he expressed a sentiment in accord with the meeting, and added that he would not mar its effect by giving thoughts of his own. Mrs. Eliza A. Orr, with her paper, *‘Woman as a Social f‘gcwr. closed the programme of the morning, Her remarks were as follow: As one cannot imagine any soclety without wo- man, then woman as o social factor Is a self-avi- dent proposition; but to what extent is she a factor in soclety, and what is the kind and degree of her infiuence are the questions implied in this subject. The evolutionists tell us that the first stable so- clety was mother and child, that this was the so- cial genesis. All the social fabrics of the world are buill around woman. Proiessor Drummond says: “In Chiuese writing, where a roof is drawn and & woman beneath, or the strokes which repre- sent & roof and a woman, we have tne idea of home”—it is the universai symbol. The family life then is the nucleus of the large: social 1ife, and our mothers from Eve to Victoria have been ad- miuisirators of social function: It was the inventive faculty of primitive woman which was the origin of the fgreat industries, that in the growth of society wera taken up and carried to greater mechanical perfection by the progres- sive faculties of men, while woman, in the corre- sponding soclal change, relegated to the nur- sery and_ Kitchen, or as’ far 5o as practicable with the custom w%lch still obtains in continental rope, of using her as the beast of burden outside the home, in which she stlll attends to domestic and maternal duties at convenient interval woman's primal endowment of usefulnes: ness as periaining to the larger social lif dustries fell into a state of “innocuous desuetude. She kept her own fire burning on the dome: hearth with variable success. but the extent the importance of her influence as & social factor degenerated. In this dependent, suborainate condition she Recently the Sau Francisco Argonaut had an edi. torial on “Wes Benjamin Frankiln a Gentleman based upon or inspirea by the fact that a Mrs. John King Van kensselaer and other colonial dames in Philadelphia decided he was not because his father was toller and a tallow chandler. Hence Beu- Jamin Franklin's descenaant, who sought admls- sion into the “Society of Colonial Dumes” on the strength of Franklin's social prominence and use- fulness in co.onial times, was refused admission because of the piebeian occnpstiou of his father, and the conclusion is inevitable if Benjamin Frank- lin was 1o gentleman on this account theu the ap- plicant was no lady. But the soclety finally recon- sidered this decision, and the Arzonaut says JAmerican democracy obtained & new lease of life”” But alas, that social equality and ability llbonld be a question of ancestry and of occupa- tioi—yea, even of dress. Here Is another illustration of the narrow inter- recation given to society, which limits it 10 400: Not long ago the san Prancisco Chroulcle prinied on lis Airst page, crowded in AMONK importaut ‘Associated Press Dispatches’” 8 picture of Mrs. Johin Jacob Astor with the headline, or scareline, “The Probable Queen of Gotham Society,” and WENL OIL L0 Warn s Lhat “society Was wavering be- tween the Astors ana_Vanaerbilts, but that young Mrs. Astor’s undeniably brilliant future may well glVe pause to those who think of giving their alle- glance to the Vanderbilts, as every one admits there will bea permanent split in New York so- clety.” Jusi why San Francisco and the entire country should be warned of this impending social cataclysm In New York fs not apparent. No won- dor "society™ ig spelled “aassie:y” by the unregen- ate and is a National joke, It i3 too much the truth that our maidens, who are to be the mothers Of men, get 1o adequate training for future social l’eldpoillll\hllilles To enter “wcl:l]"ullevl. lbl‘ll!dh and then to get married and !ive happily ward. asthe fomantic novel hs Ity 1§ 100 often the limit of their aspirations; but they live to learn by experience that their wedding rings include a deeper, more enduring social service. This modern “Mariana,” who is no longer kept Inthe s clusion of the “moated grange,” but is re- stricted by sceiety’s dictums, which are as the laws orthe Medesand Persians, to certain soclable ob- servances Is apostrophized by a latter-dsy L as follows. and it is so much better than I can do that Iquote him: To walt and wait and wait and wait Aund wait and wait and wait and wait Expressed her being’s alm and range, It was her fate, It was her fate. Sweet damosel, oh say, is there Not something else that you can do? 'Tis said that laborers are few And fields are plenty and to spare? AR 0o, said this invertebrate, »Tls every maiden’s mission great To walt and walt and wait and wait And wait and wait and wait and walt; Have you not heara the proverb state That all things come to them that wait ? They do, I answered, that is 80, But all things mean Loo much you know, While they who work can sometimes choose is self-released from artificial social restrictions and put in natural relation to the body social and body politic, she will adapt herselt with that ever- lasting and eternal adaptability inherited from Eve. Professor Griges said: “Nothing Is understood unless studted in the light of its origin, and nothing is understood if studied only in the light of its origin."4 Itis the evolved condition which explains the’ earlier. If the origin of society was mother and child, 1ts spirit was even then aliruistic, the g00d of others. The past but prophesied of & future wherein altrulsm should be recognized as the ‘tie that binds” in the social life as it does in the family lite. - This family trinity 1s the democratic social unit, and Bryce says: “Democracy cannot stop as defining men as male human beings.” There is no escape from this principle. The pillurs of- soclety are no: men alone, or women alone, but men and women. But Lester F. Ward malkes the startling statement -that the broad " recognition of social equality of the sexes has never yet been dis- tinctly and practically made.” You see we have prated of equality and freedom when there was Deither freedom nor equality of rights, duties. dress, ‘education nor opportunity, and the genuine basis of assoclation has been oObscured. But as co-ope- ration began In the home 80 it must extend to the body ofsociety. The social and political life of America has passed out of its single cell state into the larger organic life. Let woman have an abid- ing sense of her responsibility as a social factor and come out of her cell state, the shadow Iand of the past, InLo the sunshine of a wide and briiliant soclal efficfency. It is not woman,” sald Margeret Fuller, ‘it is not woman, but the law of right, the law of growth that speaks in us. I must beal my own pulse true in the heart of the world.” Miss Severance had a few remarks to launch forth after hearing this sister. She said: “*Woman is not 8 social factor. She is the social factor. There is no society with- out her. “When the Pilgrims came to this coun- try they brought their women with them and founded society in America, but ¥hen the early gold-seekers came to California they brought no women, and you know the so'.:i-? conditions that first existed here. There can be no perfect social condi- tions without woman and her influenee.’” The Rev. Eliza Tup&er Wilkes, who was to have spoken on “Woman as a Social Sufferer,” is, unhagpilgé a sufferer herself. being confined to her bed by a sudden at- tack of illness, and her address, not hav- ing been committed to writing, was post- poned. The convention at this voint closed for the midday recess. GoD SPEED ForR HUMANITY. To the Editor of THE CALL—Dear Sir: Your courageous and manly stand for woman suffrage is indeed inspiring to those laboring for human rights. Give us every liberty that does not infringe upon the equal liberty of any one else, male and female alike. That is the natural law under which we are created and under which we should live. Every step toward the abolition of human laws antagonistic to that natural law is a step forward in the march of human progress. Man has no special legislative privilege bestowed on him by the Creator. Say on, and God speed. Yours for equity. AaE Carr” FOR JUSTICE. To take the best, the worst refuse. Ob, fling aside tradiifon’s weight And be some good: at any rate Do try to be more up to date. Now the condition of things up to date, In this economic chance world, is that women are repos- sessing the industrial world, or “invading the sphere of men to the neglect of thelr natural vo- cation.” as the “remonstrants” say, and it is also possible that even if the girls do wait and wait and wait, they may never b: as fortunate as the late Mrs. Hugh Glenn of Colusa. A man passing the Glenn ranch, seeing another mending a tence ked him if he were working for Mr. Glemv. ot exactly,” sald Mr.| Glenn, for it was he, am workng for Mrs. Glenn and the childre: The facts are told In figures by Carroll D. Wright, United States Labor Commissioner, who says in 1880, out of 369 groups or industries, in only tweive were there no women or children em- ployed. Now the change in the social condition of women as the result of their readvent into the in- dustries and the evolution which has taken place in the domestic life has made women freer. The tendency is not now to resrict them, butthey could take their full share of the public life of the people, If society would take on a broader mean- ing and embrace “the whole civilized community with common interests and aims”; if it would be, and not seem to be & democracy. But worgan, as & social factor still—“walketh velled and sleeping, for she knoweth not her power—slow advaneing, halting, creeping comes the woman to the hour.” As mother she loves and cuddles and croons over Infancy as it lies on her bosom; the emotional nature s aroused, but the sireugth of her understanding, the sharpening of her powers of thought, the acquaintance with facts and discussion of methods which shall make soci- ety safe and helpful for her babe, has not been an emphatic part of her education. It is said women have no sense of public duty, DO sense of the correlation of social and National concerns. Herbert Spencer says, “The compara- tive greater impulsiveness of women would make increase of influence an injurious factor in legislation, and that religious fanaticism has been carrled further by women than men, and that she is, in fact, the poentialily of several kinds of fanatic. Furthermore, it is said, and not by Spencer, that women constitute & selr-limited society, thad thelr social duties are so lightly held, that they are whimsical and no man can pretend to comprehend a woman (neither do_they always some things of their own creation —the “new charter,” for instance, is subject to as many Interpretations as the ‘“new woman™). Women Iu fiction a!s0 have for the most part been portrayed as capricious, irresponsible, lovable, childishly egotistical, as Mrs. Makely, for instance, H. F. DESSAM, President Single Tax Society. Mrs. Lovell White of San Francisco, Who, as an Enthusiastic Suffragist, Spoke of “Women in Fiction.” Revolt and rebellion were forbidden them. They [ were made (0 submit to the decrees of fate and (0 | find support for their disappointments in the conso- | lations of religion. | ‘Women were not deemed necessary to the un- folding of the plot of the story. ‘They were foils, that the power and wickedness of man might be seen to greater advantage. Witness Fielding’s Amelia, distinguished for her conjugal affection and tenderness. whom even ‘Thackeray admired. Pamelia, or “The Reward of Virtue,” Richardson’s masterpiece, cansed a sen- | sation in its day. These two women were created for the gloritication of pailence. self-sacrifice, solf- effacement, es in Chaucer’s Griselda. Perennial Sweetness, constant martyrdom weary the modern | reader,and he turns with relfef from these lay figres of respectability and negative virtues. he characteristics of the heroines found in the novels of that time are in sirong contrast to the distingulshing features marking the heroines of our times. The nerves of the hothouse creatures posing as women in these bookswere tense, their pallor extreme, their health at all times precari- ous, and fainting was the fashion and considered | but one of the forms of good society. They were a sighing, mincing, husband-bunting breed, and li erature is (0 be congratulated uvon their disappear- ance from its pages: and mankind is to be con- | gratulated upon the fact that the woman to-day | tudes of fortune extending from the snubs and h the house, a happy conclusion approved by the family apd soctety. P Chazlotte Brontein her «Jane Eyre"” was among the first to uuilize the governess as the cent fignre n fiction. This personage, whose vic miliations accompanying her daily life up to the glory attending her marriage with a lord was & favorite characterization with writers at th: period and later. There now appesred the first great woman novel- ist, George Eiliot, of whose choice delineations none appeal to the heart so strongly as the i fated \la:zleh'rum‘rer and none dwell tenaciously in the memory. Of the latter school, composed of Mrs. Oliphant, 50 | Ward, Grand and the host of others, English and American novelists, none thus far have succeeded in creating charactérs bearing the stamp Of per. petuity. Josiah Alien’s wife is_recognized by the down Easterners as typical of women in certain localities in Yankeedom. These are provincial types, appealing to the few only, and must 500n;be forzotten. The reasons why women novelists have not generally succeeded In creatiug types or in patn log nature are obvious. In life women are for- biaden by circumstances to contact with the world in its greatness; cusiom enjoins that they shall be shiclded and protected from all but that which Form Ne This Company TRANAMITS ErTors can be guanisd aganst an transinission or delizery of Unre ater the ibessa Thisisan U, o SENT BY lfiu’ufi RCY Dated To. with ber name, for which creator Is in any way worked for ages at this picture; painters, poets, dramatists and especially novelists have success: ively decpened the lines and heizh cned the colors | as sulted thelr funer consciousness, with appa ently no ver 1o the living Maries and Jen; eves. Indeed, tie imagin not on inductive, lines; <o, when a man wants a heroine, instead of 100king for her in his daily WAIKS he retires to his back-brain, where are pre- served a number of archaic feminine images, as Deither Jshe nor her responsiblé. Men have on deductive, 1ifelike as those poor old scarecrows now in West- mioster Abbey, which used to be carried in royal funeral processions. These ladies of the mind are labeled %0od woman,” “a bad woman,” “a | coquette,” ide” and 30on. From these he ©100ses One, sliakes out its moth-eaten garments, rearvsses it d, with the help of a fresh coat of paint and accessories, it once more does duty as & woman, though it _is often merely a foil 0 some msn-ficure that the author has really studiea from life. But liow about the women writers, who are now among us in such overpoweri:ig numbers®* Do they not understand their own sex? They do naturally, but for a long time they, (00, were sut- ject to the exnmple of false art. given by the men, Who occupied the field so largely. Hear Frau Hansen, a keen critic from Scendinavia. She says: “Formerly women's Writings were, for the most part (elther directiy or indirectly) the expression of a great falsehood. They were s0 desirous to. be frupersonal that it was quite comical to see how they imitatea men’s models. both in form and con- tent. Uthers (who wroie as women) had no con- nection with literature at all; Lney nierely knitted literary stockings. Besides, the nerves have a bet- ter memory than the brain, and women mostly wrote with their nerves.” But reading-and-writing man really loved the ideal he portrayed and recoguized. This concep- tion was formed when the romances of chivalfy first snatched woman from the unblushing bra. tality of the dark ages, aud each budding mascu- line reader hoped to find the old beautifu], susce tible, dependent, uatrathful creature among bis female acq ces. When I was & child my elder brother had one period when he was absorbed by Miss Susan W er's exiraordin: especiali the one called c The Fleda of that novel was temporarily his idol, and whenever I declined to subordinite my plans to his he would remack plaintively, ““Why can’t you be more like Fleda.” " Publicly I scouted the suggestion, pri- vately I studied Fleda. 1 found that she had three sallent characteristi Firsi, she dissoived in floods of tears on the slightest provocation—as Sa. Weller remarks *Ihat (ap ws second, although & mere child she held forth, in season and out of reason, upon the doctrines of that form of the Christian churca favored by Miss Warner: third, whenever shie was 1ot ¢ither crying or preaching she was concocting the most entranc- ing biscuits and coffee. particularly when the hero was golug 10 Arop in unexpectedly to tea. No how could I be Fleda? I, who never cried unless 1 was hurt, whose notions acout doctrines were of the vaguest and who was not silowed In the kitchen, partly because my appearance there had » tendency 10 exasperaté the cook and partly be- cause the’ result of my culinary efforts did not arouse in my fumily that awe-struck gratitude which Fleda never falled to elicit from hers. 1 gave it up. Afterward Thackeray’s heroines were tried on me, one after another (all the patient, long-suffer- ing ones, I mean)—Amelin Seiby, Helenand Laura Pendennis and the rest, and 1 came o resent the £reat movelist’s notion of good women and, I think, with reason. His pattern of perfect and sure-to-be-loved wife and mother s she who en- tirely effaces her own personality before that of the male members of her househod: who makes * ber husband believe that sLe considers him the best and wisest of men, though in reality she is as conscious of Lis fauits and failings as any one; who burns the jucense of flattery incessantly refore his shrine and 80 manages him as she pieases; who laughs with fresh delight at each repetition of the old joke she knows so well, and above all who keeps a smiling face 1o the world with no matter allers turned on”: | feels what is and knows that God’s will shall be done.” I think,” commented Miss Severance, *‘that until woman has a chance to show what she is, no one can tind out what she can do. Aslong as she remains in bonds and limits, she will be powerless.” “I believe,” said Mrs. Baker, of Los Angeles, “‘that if woman does her best to follow out her noblest instincts, she will prove herself to be anything but a myth Mrs. Eliza A. Orr followed with this sentiment : L think that the woman of the myth discussed in that paper still holds in young men’s minds of'to-day and they are con- stantly associating the myth of the past with the new woman of the present.” Miss Sarah M. Severance, who has been ! styled *‘the pet of the Congress,” then | delivered a most im.eresting address on | “Woman asa Plain Fact.” She said: When Adam was deribbed and Eve became a visible entity the new woman was just begun. The new woman to-day i that the new Eve Is not 8 part of Adam, but & separate entity. But her soul after thousands of vears s still linked to the old Adam and entrammeled. In Wyoming in 1SS0 the people entered a bill for the enfranchisement of women as & joke on their Governor, who had just arrived from the | East wearing & plug bat and store clothes. To | their surprise he signed it. They tried afterward 1o have it repealed, but it has continued to be and it Is & success in that new State. Ring, ring our jubllee, ‘Wyoming's men have made us free. Now for statistics: Between 1880 and 1890 the population of the United States increased 24 per cent, and the population of Wyoming Increased 120 per cent, and yet they say men will not live where (here js woman su: . The same favor- able comparison exisied in Wyoming In regard to the fewness of caiminals and divorces opposed to the rest of the Union. Justice seems to work with wonderful success in the conjugal relations of the married ones. The men of the State of Washincton said that the women could not be relled uponm in politics. They would vote for the best men, no matter what ticket they were on. and if there were no best men on the either ticket 1hoy would scratch off the can- | didates and write in good men's names. The romen were disfranchised. and the matter was | taken to the Supreme Court, but women's suf- frage. 10 the shame of Washington, was done away wit With regard to Utab, ) 'polygamous element was excluded from tke £ ise. So any woman | owning no matter iow smalla fraction of a hus- | baud was debarred, and rightfuily so, from voting. Ups and downs the woman su! movement met. until at length it triumphed, and the majority here are good, of the woren who use the ball true women. ‘The women of Colorado have bad only one chance to vote at a general election, but already, in | spite of all 10 the contrary, their influence is being feli. Talk of chivalry! The home of chivalry is with the new Ktates. The woman of l0ng 80 was bornein s faint from the church porch 1o the altar, sustained by | smelling-salls 1ong enough 10 promise to obey and then carried out In a most depiorable state. This is not & plain-ract woman, Then we have the who elopes trom her home on a tande m and scatters tacks in the way of her pursulng father, I him {0 mourn & punctured tire while she %nlllll man seek the nearest Justice of t) ‘his 8 a fictitious, overdrawn type. What then Is 'the real blainfact woman? T wifl tell you. She s a woman who holds herselt 100 dear to exchange a decent girl for ar indecent man. She respects herself and every- thing that s respectable. She challenges regatd “new woman,” what heartache. All this compinisauce until her jealousy is aroused or her uffections threateneds and the sweetest woman becomes, according 16 ‘Thackeray, o cruel and relentless fury, ~adorably. unjust,” as'he says. and [neredivly unreasonable. 1f she hag bothsous and daughters ana is poor she teaches Her female children that they sbould rejoice to eat the bread of afilictive privation ladly, 50 that their brothers may eat and arink 85d fdle their way throagh schoe and college, and Bom Mtkng salba. it Thisle thesertof woman e with the - Quering aii opposers of justice and yighe T O “*What do you say to that?’ cried Mrs, Cooper, amid the applause which re. warded Miss Severance as she resumed her seat. Miss Hadlock, called upon as a “real live voter” from Colorado to express her- SINGLE-TAXERS WITH THE MODERN MOVEMENT. Single-taxers cannot, consistentl Any one who comprehend suffrage. suffragists. to vote, says it is mot the woman who has attained her majority has as much stop depriving her of her right. ficial rights are unprofitable and equally with man. is insured by good laws, and miseries that follow frage amendment, and will, single-taxers of my rested for ages. and her aspirations and ambitions deterlorated, bacame petty and personal, and femi- nine rivalry, feminine vanity, became marked characte:istics of her sex. Her ignorance conse- guent upon this enforced seclusion necessitated a | low plane of intercourse between men and women, and made true society, true assoclation, Impossi- ble. You see this ex: mplified o Orlental coun- tries which still persist in this arbitrary and arti- ficial social separation of the sexes: and woman under ibese conditions hasa iimited range of inter- esig, childish tastes. narrow prejudices and bigo ed contictions, and her influence as a social factor under this system of quasi slavery retards p: ress, is obstructive rather than constructive. This It ief summary of past social conditions affect- ing woman'’s position.” Now for a glance at the present and future. ‘There are three definltions of “society” to which 1 wish to call yourattention. First, “An entire ciy- ilized community with common Interests and alms”; second, -“Soclety specifically, the more cultivated part of & community in its social and intellectual relations, interests and influence”; third, “Those collectively who are ized a3 taking the lead in fashiouable li ow, you find women in all these definitions. She is haif of the “entire civilized community.” She is aiso, specifically, a fractional part of “the more culti’ yoort part of the community.” She la the whole of “those collectively who are recogn! 28 tak- ing the lead in fashionable life”—for instance, when the newspapers Lell us that “the season is over and society is returning to town.” they do not mean the “‘entire civilized community.” So- ciety as McAllister found it means an oligarchy, the supremacy of a few, mostly women, ndu; an tators of soclal form and ~ceremony, & competitive struggle for personal ance and sociai a & wrong ” Such cial cruelty, and social hostility iea's poselbie svetal MY Sivias his Siracy women' % its hru:l-u -;-:;._hlu{cm world because of our standard s Here is an instaoce of mml!nmu: in the train of bad laws. a deep and earnest interest in the progress of the acquaintance are greatly deli THE CALL on this question. [Extract from an interview with Joseph Leggett of the y with their principles, be opposed to woman s and accepts the fundamental doctrines of the single-tax philosophy must recognize the right of women to vote. fact I believe that all single-taxers are woman suffragists, A single-taxer, And as a matter of or, in apter phrase, equal when asked if he is in favor of giving women the right question of giving. He I believe, to a man, vote for “Altrurian”—“who seemin, bhad & conscience light as air and bragged herself up as Yomen do when you make concessions to them.” It I8 too often trie that women “sink down in the 80ft circumstances of their lives” and muke the hervous woes of comfortable people, or the total depravity ot domestic heip, the theme of ther talk to the ignoring of questions of larger social import. To Deglect and stultify the original all-around usefulness of women Is aysoclal defeat. They have an intuitive sense of affairs and suflicient execu- Uve abllity, but shut out from the rational and Datural play of Intelloctual forces they have de- veloped the morbidly emotional and an exag- gerated respect for tradition and authority. The strength. and knowledge experience alone can give was declared unconventional and even uncon- stitutional. Focial prejudice -piled up against wo- MAN’s proper appreciation of social duties. Now, we.did not start thai way in the begin- ning, #when Adam delved and Eve span.’’ Nature sald if you would eat you must work, if you would preserve your offspring you must invent the ways and means of doing so, and woman as mother was found equal o the emergency. Now that eco- nomic conditions haye broken in upon social tradi- tion and women again face the problem of seif- support, they still at times get scared and volun- tarily or involuntarily, as the case ma; rect temporary barriers outside of which lies n- conventional thing it is not considered womanly Lo do. That adjective “womanly™ and the synonym iadylike” have beaten back much pralseworthy ambition. It is not good forghe health of the so- ¢lal organism to educate woman merely as woman. {-A human creature Is your state, and to be human is more great than even womanhood. ” The responsibility of woman's inefliciency as a social factor rests upon soclety as a_whole: beither sex alone can be adjudged guilty. It is the “effect Mlh:.ml'“m“ e::éluon ofier!llnfll-." However, latus of women has generally risen, as the more intelligent peoples feel the pressure of the social and economic changes which are steadily forcing the on in thougbt and deed of the spirit of S TalT wiLh s of e bt e e B mufll £Cono: Mw‘hu, future will dmfi - suffrage as social safeguard. At the nt time women Al Piaces of responaibiiiLy, And Jos 85 T a5, Woman National Committee of the Sing recognizes the truth that every right to vote as he has. - Let us Hair-splitting distinctions betweeen natural and arti- begging the question. She is bound to obey the laws She is equally interested with him in the welfare of society, which and she is compelled to bear equally with him the calamities The single-taxers of California take movement in favor of the equal suf- it on election day. All the ghted with the noble stand taken by x League from California AFTERNOON SESSION. Woman In Fiction and Woman In Poetry Portrayed With Rare Flidelity. The Rev. Dr. J. K. McLean of Oakland, president of the Pacific Theological Sem- inary, was to have opened the afternoon session with a paper on “Woman in Re- ligion,” but as he is engaged in searching for one of his seminarians, whose wysteri- ous disappearance, noted elsewhere in Tue Carr, has caused him much anx- iety, he felt unable to appear, and the opening essay on “Woman in Fiction” was read by Mrs. Loveill White. She treated her subject in the following terms A history of woman In fiction would include a history of the human race, for In the earliest legends of mankind woman has always appeared by the side of man—a necessary of the order of the universe. But my time is limited. In the National ep cs originating in the early civiiizations of all countries woman is observed to be an im- portant figure. The gods on Olympus were accom- Panied by goddesses almost their equals in power. A story-tellcr, essaying to piciure life, beirays his racé, environment and the degree of the de- yelopment of his own mind as well as that of ihe universal mind about him. The female charac- ters in fiction sre theretore ordinari! y colored with the writer's beliefs concerning the station and function of woman, snd save in rare instances she is treated by both maie and female authorsas being subordinately related to man, or rather as an F S oamen wiibiout a Saw o charscter d iat, ‘omen a flaw of o not ex nor do wholly d.gnv&d women exist, and In fie- tion saints and devils are an impertinence, re. proaching the author of nature. The the older English mwn’lnb] crea- tures, excellent only in domestic 21,000 OFFICES IN AMERICA. @ DELIVERS ouly on Sy LUK & maeenage hack Lo {he ssad Lesuges. buyoud the amuunt of ol Aled with th for transminsion. WEIEATLD BESSAGE: and 1 delivered by request of the. THOS. T. ECKERT, Presidert and REC'D Y RECEIVED: an Francisco, 0ala, m. standars Time. INCORPORATED R station for comparisn and the Pald thereon nor in any case where | Sender under the conditions uamed above General Manager. = e —— Fac-Simile of the Dispatch From the Victorious Suffragists in Sacramento Which Created a Furor of “Enthusiasm at the Morning Session of the Woman’s Congress Yesterday. THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY CABLE SERVICE TO ALL THE WORLD, Lmiting its liahility which have feen assented (o by thesender R Ly S table (os arrors or {elny *Tiing withio sixty days anmpany will not hold itself | the clain is uwt presested 1o does not exist who Is ashamed that the piano has legs and who takes pride in the fact that she is an abnormal and silly being. In spite of the fact that the women of today are taller, better formed and sounder of body than women were at that time, learned men, in essay after essay, iell us that the higher education now given women unfits them 1or the performance ot the duties pertaining to wife and mother and that Physically there is observed a marked deteriora- tion. In the early part of this century there appeared a noted company of novelists. headed by Dickens and Thackeray and comprising many others of minor quality, who all succeeded in individnaliz- ing their female characters more distinctly than had their prececessors. Dickens’ popularity may be passing, but his hand was skilled In drawing and his gailery of portraits, whom we all recognize, is next in exient only to that of Shakespeare, and many of his portraits and caricatures t0 remain as works of art for long to come. Thackeray permitted no prejudices in favor of conventionality to stand between him and his art, and it has been aflirmed that his reputation suffers from bis indiscretion in having created Becky Sharp. As well might it be sald that civilization suffers from having created the women who served 83 models for this reproduction e ns, Anthony Trollope. Bulwer and Charles Rende, each treatea woman in thejr liter. ary productions from the jtandpoint of their day. She was, with rare exceptions, but a mere specta- tor, sitting in the outer circle, before whom the male characters occasion: Claimea thelr parts TTCC . e God, In novels, Is always against the individual whom society is against, and after a briet day of IIIOCQ':I, I‘J‘a: I:.h'el:! b?’::?h‘ ;nm-n meets disaster and one or many hideous forms. e In considering the write; to-da fln them the credit o Baver ol et for having edvancad t) minine standard 1o sult the progress of tae The woman with a taste for mathematics. astron. omy and_the sciences, still finds dificaltics iy securing & husband. She stll exists In an atmon: phere of mild disapproval, but her disadvap are Dot looked upon 8o contemptuously as they ‘were formerly. Hermia Suydam, Daisy Miler, The Heavenly Twins, Tess and Trilby are fictitious beings who would have astonished the el ters The woman of man's nowelie i beautiful, painting and pathetic figure avpealing from the injus'ice of man. Camille. culiarities of the French mind, [« the sasge bty whose shame and sorrow are again snd aiis revived in the drama and operar Clamacs o lowe, whose woes and angulsir excitad the piis opx forefathers, is the ever recarring lica, ASel clzed:, u Madirier Frenchified the motit aad vy us Trilby. In the austere and primitive days of America, Hawthorne pluced befors. the cngisic rorid of art Hester Prynne, who carrea oo wis Dreast the scarlet letter; and our gwn sl Spished writer, Bret Harie, has transtormen o Character iomeet the demands ‘of the rousts soa ircums B e ces attending existenco b the ane Port-r, Jane Austen, Mme, d’Arbley and Mrs. Radciiif compore a St Whon bicky] Clavomae, coterie of novalists whose of domestic and’ rocim o Lerolnes were endowed With a jpas oy and Wh0se ue in the hoxjand propriecy. In these pages Srogoy ntrigues in whi BEainey 1::“ ich are int e those beings of less no 1040 complece the skerches of Lol 'fm%i-:';:fizl perlence i senationof Jarts Tal ersell fo o Derisnce the sensatlo ove till the proper pro- suspected of this grave im- pgp&{.cl:;m‘. she is Y she is repremanded by the entire 1 . hhe is told in no uncertain terms thas the objeot 5 il afectlous. If he but once divines her seoret. omdespise her forever. She is counse ed to stady eonceflmemofhefledlnf.lrshe would marry. The g d featare observed in the novels of that pe. fiod and ‘L:u;l of Jhat the wicked and hardened a3 of the Ars exercises a fascination are destined | relates to domesticity. Knowledge Is sala to take from their personal charm, that charm being Decessary to their success In life, which means marriage. Men drop the tone of their conversa: tion to meet the requirements of the smaller, im- mature, untrained, feminine mind. Women sre taught to regard their weakness and Inability as fascinating powers, recommending them to the kindly consideration of the stronger sex. Thus ill-equipped for her task, when one at- templs to write she cannot in her firs: fright es. Cave the disadvantages attending her prescribed circle. - To-day our best women writers, rather than at- tempt to portray life as viewed from their re- stricted standpoint, waste their powers in the pro- duction of novels with & purpose. Asa work of art a novel showing no vestige of lis mechanism and wholly free from the idiosyncrases and indi- Vidualities of the crafistaan gives deligh: (o it readers. A book filled with automatic beings strutting through its pages, who at the turning o a screw mouth their stilted doctrines and forcing their ethics at every turn, is not a novel, though it bear the name. Evadhe and Marcells, whose sayingsare but the echoes of Mrs. Ward's vie are tedious beings, nelther real nor ideal. ‘The women in iiterature ‘who will succeed must be one with life; then forge:ting thelr own person- ality permit their creations to live and act in their Own way irrespective of ethics, as did the men and women of Shakespeare. Shakespeare's genius transcends environment and his women sre veri- table realities to-day as they were in the past, and must ever be. Imogen, Beatrice, Isabells, Cor- della, Portia, Jessica, Ophella, Rosalind, Desde- mona, Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth and Jullet all are :;c:::ry o v._‘r_z: plays in which th ;nvo"-unl"z TLADt part. These women are strodgly and breathe the breath of life. They are moved by love, by hate, by great ambition, by jealousy, by all the passions which agitaié the human breast. Shakespeare drew from life with a broad Vision and with broad lines, therein differing from the novelists who have produced characters (0 sult their own preconceived idess of woman’s place ia the family, the church and the state. ‘I have been asked,” observed Professor Naphtaly Herz Imber, the cabalist, open- ing the discussion, “to state the position of woman according to Cabala. Oses ex- | cluded women from active participation in religious and civil matters. At the time of the second temple the rabbis practically shut out woman irom membership in the synagogue. The Cabala, on the con- {)l;m;)y‘ stands for equality between them th Miss Severance was the next to discuss the paper. She said: “Truth is often stranger than fiction and good fiction is crystallized truth. “The women of “Walter Scott’s novels Wwere just the women of the frontier. “The women of Dickens were very good sort of women, but narrow as a rule. *‘It seems to me that fiction should have & purpose. Harriet Beecher Stowe has written fiction that has had the greatest force in the novel of to-day. Fiction should embellish truth and make it agree- able and presentable to the public.” Mrs. Haight had some thoughts on the novel. She said: *‘The purpose of the novel with a pur- pose lies in one place, with the author. ‘‘Men think they can see through a barn door. They do, says one character, 'and that ;:Jq:_e reason they are all so little behind Mrs. Cooper asking Mrs. Van Pelt to the chair, also gave her views on the subject of the paper. ‘'Old Dame Poyser,”” she commenced, *is one woman 5 in"ficti i it for nothing ion whom I admire, else. for her remark: ‘I 'nt and immature girl, d tha after the mu‘xh men | bas sapped ‘e Wworld of 1oy uoth| Dew to experience, B e s & el © Sbtecy and married to the lovellest daughter-of know women is W oolish, but God made 'em fo fit the men.” Dinah Morris is another lovely character, preaching to rough work- men from a wagon. George Eliot had &